How do I get the user to enter arbitrary combinations of coins that will be recognized as a dollar?

I am attempting to have a character ask the user to enter a number of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. If the total value of the coins entered equals a dollar, the character congratulates the user. Otherwise, the character tells the user whether the amount entered was more or less than one dollar (see: Starting Out with Alice, 3/E Exercise 4).

I have created variables for the dollar and coins, one variable per each (e.g., dollar = 1, quarter = 0.25). There is an If/Else statement with the true/false actions.

My handiwork:

EDIT: If anyone can tell me how to crop the image on the forum, I will gladly do so!

There are a couple of problems here.
The first one is that you are asking one question and expecting 4 answers. The simplest solution is to ask 4 questions. So the interaction might go something like:

Code:

rabbit say "Can you please give me exactly one dollar in change?"
rabbit ask "How many quarters do you have?"
quarters = <- User inputs a number
rabbit ask "How many dimes do you have?"
dimes = <- User inputs a number
rabbit ask "How many nickles do you have?"
nickles = <- User inputs a number
rabbit ask "How many pennies do you have?"
pennies = <- User inputs a number

Now you can add quarters * 0.25 + dimes * 0.1 ... to get the total and compare it to 1.

The second thing you need to deal with is that of variable types. At present you are asking for a string to be received from the user but you need a number or 4 numbers to be exact. The problem is that you cannot treat a string as a number, in other words you cannot add, and multiply strings. You could, using the Int() method, convert a string to a number but this is fraught with peril! In asking for a string you allow the user to type in whatever they want and if they type in something besides a number and you try to convert it your program will likely crash.
Side Note: A variation of this scenario is how most systems are broken into by hackers.
So the best way to get numbers in Alice is to use the "ask user for a number. The user can still mess up your program but it is not as easy. Some examples are:

The user can put in a negative number.

The user could put in a "real" or non-integer number.

The user might be able to put in an expression like 1.1*-3.

In general it is the programmers job to think of how the user could mess things up and try to exclude or correct them before the program goes south.
Mark

Sorry for the delay, but if anyone is interested, my professor posted the results and it is more elegant than what I tried to hobble together! I have attached it to this post for posterity.

On my Collages blackboard I can download the files (a2w) but nothing happens other than a blank page on my browser. Can you or someone print the code and make a PDF? I am a little lost and cannot download until I'm able to get home. But It would help out a ton now

On my Collages blackboard I can download the files (a2w) but nothing happens other than a blank page on my browser. Can you or someone print the code and make a PDF? I am a little lost and cannot download until I'm able to get home. But It would help out a ton now

I too have the same problem. I was able to download this at my a collage computer but neither of my 2 laptops using Chrome and trie IE explorer (Win 7), I have a Windows 10 laptop but same problem, but I will try Edege and see what happens. I may even try a few other browsers.